Tilta Nucleus Nano, is it any good?

[Joel Arvidsson]

Looking in to getting wireless follow focusing on a tight budget. I wonder if anybody here have experience with Tilta Nucleus Nano?

[Frank Martin]

We own one.....works as advertised It’s well made ..... we have put it on locked off remote cameras to control iris and it works fine....that said I don’t think it’s a good option you don’t have enough torque/responsiveness so you’ll always be behind . Nucleus w/ 2 motors is a good option for low budget FF

[M Harvey]

I own the Nano and am a fan-- it's surprisingly good for the price. There are things that are fiddly with it (e.g. powering options, the lack of standard rigging options for the hand unit), but a lot of that fiddly quality is due to its flexibility-- after all, you don't need a v-mount to power it, which means it's much easier to integrate into a DSLR set-up. The hand unit has a surprisingly nice, nuanced feel. It's fairly reliable, but not rock solid: there have been a couple times when it stopped working, only to be fine an hour later. I generally have a manual follow focus as a backup on gigs where I have a rental budget.

It has always had enough torque for my purposes; in addition to geared still lenses, I've used it with Ultra Primes and rehoused Speed Panchros. I suppose it might struggle with poorly maintained lenses-- that Cooke 20-100 at the back of the rental cabinet with "a bit of a sticky spot" in the focus could be a challenge. But it really does help to set it up with a power source that lets you get the maximum torque out of it-- I think some people who have issues with it aren't feeding it as much power as it actually can take. There's a definite difference between powering the motor with a v-mount (from a d-tap-to-USB cable) and powering it from a generic cell phone charging brick. (I do sometimes power it with a brick that has a high output USB port. But then you have to rig up that power brick. Again-- flexible, but that can mean fiddly.)

[Nick Gardner]

I own a nano with the M motor and find it has plenty of oomph and works well. Mine is practically brand new, comes with the d tap to nano motor, N motor, and M motor. I own a couple of bartechs and just got another three chanel system, so if you are interested, make me an offer ;-) Works great, I just have lots of other options.

Nick

[Benjamin Cabral]

I own a Nano and the nano motor sucks:
It stop working two times under warranty and I had to sent it to Los Angeles paying expensive shipping both times. And now the USB connector got broke, when I plugged it just coming from LA the connector got unglued inside the motor and the internal board and circuits got scratched and damaged by the USB connector. I care a lot my equipment and I can say that the motor is a piece of junk, better get the M motor it seems to be better build.

[Cameron Currier]

I mean... for $200 it's wonderful..... I've used many cinema lenses with it, but only powered via 14v power. The USB power isn't all that great. My biggest gripe with it is when the handwheel battery starts to get low, there is no indicator. The screen still stays lit and everything seems normal, but the buttons will either not work, or do something completely different than it should..... Putting in a fresh battery solves these issues, just wish there would be an indicator of some sort.....

If needing a budget FF solution, I'd rather use the Nucleus, which I rent often. One of these days I just need to buckle down and get my own kit, especially since the two systems can work with eachother.

[andrewhake]

It is definitely the best lens motor you will get for that price. As well as one of the most compact. Never had an issue with mine.

[peter richweisz]

Surprisingly good for the price and the size until it works, but only usable from D-tap. my motor got toasted and had to send to China to replace it. Took about a month. On one shoot i used it on atlas anamorphics in a kind of emergency, and it worked fine. On some of my stiffer vintage lenses the torque was just not enough. I ended up buying Pdmovie Remote Air pro 3, which has plenty of torque and the phone control app is pretty cool as an added feature. You can store your lens markings and program zoom speed by seconds between A and B mark, so you can get a precision of a motorized zoom. I had that one for 3 months and so far very solid.

[Kwan Khan]

I have 3 units + using it on Ronin S = works great.
If you plan to use on heavier lenes then power the motor with D-tap (powering motor with 5V on beefier lens = latency).

[David W. Jones]

I have both the Tilta Nucleus-Nano and the Nucleus-M.
I have been using the Nano motor for Iris with the M kit.
As others have stated, power the Nano motor from a D-Tap power source.